Sweet Enemy

Geoffrey Wentworth, the Earl of Stratford, is a war hero focused on affairs of king and country rather than affairs of the heart. Nevertheless, his mother is playing matchmaker and has invited potential brides to visit the family estate. Geoffrey resigns himself to playing host to a gaggle of husband-hunters more interested in his title than in him—until he unexpectedly meets one notable and intriguing exception.

Miss Liliana Claremont has no interest in being an earl’s wife, least of all Wentworth’s—the son of the man she believes murdered her father. Liliana is determined to find evidence of the crime, but her behavior rouses the earl’s suspicions as well as her own undeniable attraction to a man she thought was her enemy. As Geoffrey and Liliana explore their growing passion for one another, the truth behind their fathers’ enmity threatens to destroy their newfound love…

Review (Spoiler Alert):

A nice historical romance novel. Pretty typical story but it was well written and the characters were endearing. The mystery, to me, was pretty obvious but we read these novels for the romance anyway. Liliana discovers correspondence between her father and someone connected to the Wentworths. Her father was involved with some type of espionage, betrayed, and then murdered. She goes to the gathering at the Stratford house in order to find her father's murderer, posing as a potential bride. Geoffrey is immediately attracted to Liliana. She challenges him, has her own interests in chemistry and medicine, and is not looking for marriage. He is looking through his finances since the numbers don't add up and someone is trying to blackmail him. Liliana figures out that Geoffrey isn't involved in her father's downfall, but likes how he isn't a typical aristocrat and wants to better the lives of ex soldiers. Liliana suspects that Geoffrey's father was murdered as well, poisoned by cyanide. Geoffrey lets slip that there is a room filled with his father's belongings. Liliana sneaks into it and finds her father's letters. Her father was writing to Geoffrey's father and both of them were killed within weeks of each other. Liliana knows that Geoffrey will hate her after her deception, but she needs his help to decipher the code written in the letters. She reveals her true purpose in coming to Stratford, even after Geoffrey proposes to her. Geoffrey does not believe he can ever trust Liliana again but finds that he still loves her. They break the code together revealing that their fathers were trying to help a friend escape from France. They used Geoffrey, who was in the war at the time, to unknowingly bring over a bribe for the French. However, negotiations suddenly fell through, and no one knows where the treasure used for the bribe went. Liliana decides to leave since she cannot marry Geoffrey if he will never love her. Geoffrey learns that his uncle was in severe debt because of his gambling, was proficient in forging handwriting, and was his father's confidante. He suspects that his uncle forged the letter to Liliana's father that lead to his murder and now Liliana was in danger. Geoffrey heads to the folly when he discovers Liliana is gone, hoping she will be there retrieving her father's letters. Liliana is kidnapped by Geoffrey's uncle who demands the treasure. She tricks him into going to the folly on a hunch that Geoffrey would be there as well. Geoffrey overpowers his uncle while Lilana is injured in the attack. Thinking that Geoffrey will be arrested for treason, Lilana defends him against visiting government agents. Geoffrey realizes that Liliana's deceptions are not filled with malice as his own mother's are and that she truly loves him. The treasure, an emerald necklace from Egyptian times, is found in a well that Lilian's father asks Geoffrey's father to close down as it was hazardous to people's health.